>>>Hi everybody,
>>>
>>>I have a character string representing Style which consists of the following portions:
>>>
>>>Color (1 letter with - or without -) Type (one or 2 letters) Number portion (could be any number but usually no more than 5 digits and not less than 2) then Stone (1 letter) then quality (number) then color quality (1 letter), e.g. for example:
>>>W-4568S5B
>>>E460D4
>>>E94E
>>>
>>>Now, all these portions are optional except for number portion. My task is to get the number portion first, then try to search, if we have a file with the same number, same first portion, same stone (if it was present), different quality. Then if there are no files with the same stone, I need to do other string manipulations.
>>>
>>>Can you help me to get Number portion first?
>>>
>>>Thanks in advance.
>>
>>try
>>

>>? str(ABS(val(SUBSTR('W-4568S5B',2))))
>>? str(ABS(val(SUBSTR('E460D4',2))))
>>? str(ABS(val(SUBSTR('E94E',2))))
>>

>
>Not absolutely falesafe, try

?str(ABS(val(SUBSTR('E94E5',2))))

after 1s

?str(ABS(val(STRTRAN(UPPER(SUBSTR('E94E5',2)),"E","?"))))